Huge
thanks to all those who’ve sent appreciations and good wishes – I am especially touched by this piece in the CTW Newsletter – and to
those organisations, professional and amateur, who have offered us
complimentary tickets with no expectation of a blog review.

As
some of you will have noticed, I am trying to see as much live
entertainment as my wallet and my wife will allow – apologies to
those I’ve missed.

After
45 years and thousands of reviews, in print and online, it’s time
to hang up the “reviewing bag” - pens, notebooks, torch, cough
sweets, water – and put my feet up.

What
do you mean ?

In
brief, no new entries on this blog, except for some archive pieces,
which will be tweeted and shared in the usual way. But still the
occasional piece for other sites, adjudications for any group that
might care to commission them - and maybe Facebook mentions for the
events I shall pay to see.

My
thanks, of course, to all those who’ve invited me, to the
performers who’ve entertained me, the papers and the websites that
carried my words and to my driver and amanuensis, without whom I
should have given up long ago …

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Lots
of retrospectives, with critics picking their favourite treats of the
year gone by.

I’ve
not done too well in 2017, to judge by the Guardian’s choices –
several lists, including this democratic selection. Just Emma Rice’s
lovely Romantics Anonymous, and the National’s superb Follies. And
of course I was not invited to either.

But
this, my last year in the reviewer’s seat, has provided many
delights, from the obscure and unlooked-for to old favourites.

Musically,
an outstanding year for the Waltham Singers. With Music for Lent and
Gerontius in the Cathedral. Of many other concerts, the inspired
Devil’s Violin lingers in the memory, and on the Civic stage,
Chelmsford Ballet Company’s Aliceproved a remarkable achievement, followed by another stunning Ballet Central show.

The
EYO has been celebrating its 60th
anniversary, and this great concert enabled us to share in the
festivities.

Rotary
have been promoting these New Year concerts for some years – not
always seasonal Strauss, though I recall one memorable evening with
John Georgiadis. This year they were joined by the Essex Youth
Chamber Choir, another branch of Essex Music.Simon
Warne’s excellently disciplined choir gave us Howard Goodall’s
23rd
Psalm – aka The Vicar of Dibley – Bob Chilcott’s Give Me The
Strength, from his Life Cycle cantata, and an arrangement of a
traditional spiritual, Standing in the Need of Prayer.They
combined with the orchestra for Vivaldi’s Gloria: a very impressive
performance, conducted by Robin Browning. He managed to achieve an
excellent balance, despite having a small choir, of largely
untrained, sometimes
immature voices, behind sizeable instrumental forces. A spirited
interpretation, too – lively strings in the opening Gloria – with
fine solo work from the players, oboe and cello, for example, and
from the singers: three sopranos for the Domine Deus, and Kerensa
Newcombe for the later movements, returning after the Qui Sedes to
pick up her trumpet for the triumphant ending.A
pity we were not given a little more help in the programme – not
necessarily text and translations, but at least a list of the
movements.No
such problem with everyone’s favourite Christmas ballet, The
Nutcracker. Robin Browning talked us through the extracts, from the
Christmas Eve party to the Waltz of the Snowflakes, from the Land of
Sweets and its colourful divertissements
to the heart-on-sleeve Pas de Deux. A real treat to hear the music at
such close quarters, with
the wordless chorus behind the violins, Tchaikovsky given
a welcome
freshness by these young players. As Browning pointed out, what is a
bread-and-butter warhorse to the ROH pit band is a new discovery for
these youngsters, playing it for the first time.

It
was preceded by Witches, a curtain raiser written by Caroline Penn,
the EYO’s leader. Her very own hexentanz,
with exciting brass and thrilling percussion.

The views expressed in these pages are those of the authors alone. Extracts and images are included as Fair Use for the purposes of review. If you are the copyright owner, please contact me to have your work acknowledged or removed.

meagray@gmail.com

About Me

I first wrote reviews for the Essex Chronicle in the early 70s, part of a team led by "Jon Richards". When he stepped down, I took over the organization of the Arts Pages. In 1988 I was succeeded by Mary Redman, though I continued to contribute reviews until the Chronicle stopped carrying regular coverage of amateur performances. Peter Andrews of the Chelmsford Weekly News kindly allowed me to write for his paper. After he retired, his work was continued by Jim Hutchon, who recruited me again to share the load. After Jim died, I continued to provide professional reviews of arts events in and around Chelmsford and Brentwood, until I finally hung up my pen and my word processor in December 2017.
Apart from the newspaper - now The Chelmsford Times - my views have appeared on The Reviews Hub, Remote Goat and Sardines. And of course, all of them were shared on this blog.